Letters

As I smoothly glided along U.S. 17 from the South Carolina state line heading for Shallotte, I traveled eight miles of newly re-paved road (both ways) that had been constructed over these past two weeks during the evening hours.

Thank you, North Carolina Department of Transportation, for recognizing the increased traffic patterns this road serves with all our summer visitors to our wonderful beaches and golf courses and for having the foresight to accomplish your work during the low traffic hours. Kudos to your planning department!

Dear Mike from New York, I’m sorry I don’t know your last name, but you know who you are. On Aug. 23, I was visiting my son Zach at the cross where we lost him Sept. 4, 2007. The cross is located on N.C. 179 (Beach Drive), across the street from Lowes Food. It was a very difficult visit, as I had to tell him First Bank was getting ready to build on that land and we would have to move the cross where I’ve visited with him for nine years.

Southern Brunswick County voters: your current GOP congressman is David Rouzer; his opponent this Nov. 8 is Democrat J. Wesley Casteen.

I will vote for Casteen for Congress in North Carolina’s 7th District because my issues are a living wage for hourly wage families, with health care and adequate education for our children. Rouzer opposes adequate funding for all three. Casteen supports adequate funding for all three.

On Aug. 3, an early morning fire destroyed a single-family home at 1683 Pacific Ave. SW in Shallotte.

Firefighters said the family was “moments from disaster.” The family, along with their four dogs and a cat, escaped, with one person taken to the hospital with second-degree burns to the hands and eyes. Two cats did not survive. The fire was discovered about 6:30 a.m. on the back porch, and quickly spread to the back bedroom and the remainder of the house. Shallotte Point, Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach firefighters responded.

Bolivia seniors, as well as other community members, are confused. Just what determines whether a community receives a playground for its children or a senior citizens’ center? When will Bolivia citizens be recognized for what they have contributed to the county? It is puzzling. We are constantly pleading for some consideration for our citizens. There seems to be unequal appropriations to the area in which our county seat is located: the town of Bolivia and areas in its vicinity.

Earlier in the year, I decided to put a new roof on my home because of leaks and other minor problems. The roof was 18 years old and I decided it was time. The cost was around $13,000. Since then, most all my neighbors have installed new roofs for a $2,500 deductible from their wind and hail insurance policies because of a storm that supposedly went through here sometime during July 2015. Most of these roofs were more than 20 years old and needed to be changed in the near future anyway.

I emailed my congressman, David Rouzer, voicing my support of HR-1942 banning the export of horses from the United States to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada where they are processed for human consumption. Rouzer chairs the subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.

Horse slaughter ended here in 2007, but irresponsible Americans continue to dispose of unwanted animals by selling them to buyers for transport across our borders. This fate befalls 150,000 to 300,000 animals per year.